


When All is Said and Done

by theboywantscoffee



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Five Finally Lets Loose With His Family, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy Whump, Number Five | The Boy-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27200753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theboywantscoffee/pseuds/theboywantscoffee
Summary: In which the Hargreeves siblings bicker over nothing of importance and Five struggles with processing the events leading up to their time travel back to 2019.
Comments: 33
Kudos: 283





	When All is Said and Done

**Author's Note:**

> Post season 2 AU as the Sparrow Academy doesn't exist in this setting.

The Hargreeves siblings are arguing.

Not an uncommon scene, really. Even now less than an hour after their successful time travel back to 2019, Five’s family still manages to find a topic worthy of discourse. At Klaus’s request the record player from Luther’s room has been procured and sits on the table across from the bar, records strewn around it. The great topic of debate is what album or song seems the most appropriate for their current celebration. The longer the debate goes on, the less significant the song of choice seems to be.

Five watches the drama unfold from his position seated at the bar. He feels quite reminiscent of the last time he sat here, though instead of sipping at a margarita this time Five nurses a graciously poured tumbler of whiskey. It’s a bit harsh on his taste buds, but he enjoys the warmth it exudes to the rest of his body once swallowed. Perhaps it’s his thirteen year old body’s minimal alcohol tolerance or perhaps it’s the lack of proper food and sleep from the last fourteen days, but he already feels a subtle heaviness to his eyelids assuring him that yes, he is in fact already buzzed.

It makes the entire spectacle unfolding before him less annoying and more entertaining. 

“You are _not_ putting on the Bee Gees, got it?” Diego reaches out to snatch a record from Klaus’s hands. Klaus jerks the record back just in time, holding it away from him and stepping back a few paces.

“Come _on_ Diego, don’t be such a party pooper,” he whines with a pout. “It’s so appropriate, isn’t it? We survived not just one but _two_ apocalypses, yey! Go Team Zero, right?”

“Yeah yeah, Go Team Zero. We still ain’t putting that shit on.”

“Shit?!” There’s an appalled gasp and Klaus clutches the record closer to his chest. “How dare you talk about them like that, after everything they’ve given us? What would you prefer we listen to, a somber dirge to celebrate you killing the mood of us saving the world?”

Diego's mouth quickly opens with a retort and Allison cuts him off before he can speak.

“Okay, can you two just shut up and put something on already?” She sits nearby, cocktail in hand. Her eyes have been flitting periodically to the clock across the wall and Five knows that despite her agreeing to celebrate with one drink, her daughter’s wellbeing weighs heavily on her mind.

“Yeah guys, it really isn’t that big of a deal,” Luther chimes in. “Just put something on or I will.” 

Diego bristles. “Oh, so now _you_ get to make all the decisions?” 

Five lets out a quiet scoff and rolls his eyes. Not _this_ shit again. 

The disagreement continues and Five maintains his position as a spectator. He both doesn’t care enough to get involved and feels far too exhausted to. While his body and mind are both eager to relax and sink into the heaviness the whiskey provides him, he finds it difficult to settle his racing thoughts. First and foremost, the matter of whether the Commission will truly let them skate by after all of their rather significant changes to the timeline still has yet to be determined, despite his conversations with Dot and Herb. While the general malcontent most employees felt towards management there was palpable, Five knows some are still fiercely loyal to the board and Carmichael. He doubts his slaughter will be forgiven by all and Five wearily anticipates that massacre catching up to him again some time soon. He also has his own concerns about their stint in the 1960s (ending up on the FBI's most wanted list is not exactly subtle) and it’s something that he will be looking into as soon as he can slip away from this mess.

And lastly, while his siblings are all clearly alive and well before him now, Five can’t seem to shake the very vivid memory of them all being quite dead but a few hours prior. 

He drains the contents of his glass with a hard swallow and promptly pours himself another. As much as he tries to keep it at bay, the sound of gunfire crescendos in his mind and overwhelms him, drowning out the squabbling adults. He can still see bullets tearing through flesh and creating crimson blooms where they pierce his siblings. Time slows down and he watches them fall like ducks in a row; first Diego, then Allison, then Luther, Klaus, Vanya, and finally himself. All he can feel is pain, _excruciating_ pain, and he doesn’t know what’s worse - the bullets nestled in his abdomen or the all encompassing agony of watching his siblings die for a _third fucking time_. The air around him is so bitter and cold it hurts to breathe. The warmth that pools beneath him quickly cools against the frigid barn floor. 

He failed. Failed to protect them. Failed to save them. This must be the universe's perverse punishment. He is given the slower death, drawn out long enough that he can live out his final moments reflecting on how everything he worked so hard for amounted to absolutely _nothing_. 45 years stuck alone, living out the end of the world. Wasted months (years? He isn’t sure anymore.) serving the Commission, biding his time until he could figure out the way back to his family. Stopping not just one apocalypse but _two_. And in the end they still die horribly, only this time it’s in a decade they don’t even belong in courtesy of yet another one of his botched time jumps. They take their dying breaths in bodies riddled with bullets, with pierced lungs and broken ribs, through bloodied and metallic tasting lips, the last feeling their left with being nothing other than excruciating _pain-_.

“You okay?” 

It’s the soft voice of his sister that snaps Five away from the barn and back to the academy. He turns and watches Vanya take the seat beside him, her brow furrowed with concern. 

“I’m fine,” he answers. His lips curl into something akin to a smirk and he gestures at the scene before them with his glass. “Just taking it all in.” 

Vanya offers a small smile, glancing at their siblings. “Yeah. Leave it to our family to turn a music choice into a heated debate.”

“Can’t really expect anything more from them.”

Vanya makes a small noise of amusement, yet her expression falls when her gaze drops to her own drink in her hands. Five can see how puffy her eyelids are, how exhausted she looks. She’s been crying, he realizes, and he knows she is mourning the loss of a love she was never meant to experience and yet will never be able to forget. He feels the guilt burrowing itself deeper into his chest and it makes his throat hurt. None of his siblings deserve any more heartache, especially not Vanya. This world has already been cruel enough to her - _he_ has already been cruel enough to her. 

“I’m sorry, Vanya.” His voice is soft with sincerity and he lets out a small sigh, pressing his lips into a thin line. “I... I never meant for any of this to happen. I never meant to put you all through this.” 

Five isn’t sure what exactly he’s apologizing for. Fucking up saving them from the apocalypse the first time? Getting them stuck in the 60’s? Or is he talking about leaving them all behind when he was thirteen and giving the universe the green light to make the rest of Vanya’s life unbearable? He knows there is a lot more he’s meant to say, _needs_ to say. But suddenly he can’t speak any more and he’s unable to look at her. He takes a distracted gulp of his drink, averting his gaze back to his other siblings. Luther is now involved in the argument and Diego puffs his chest out before him, Klaus evidently on his side now. Allison has risen from her spot and is leafing through the records herself, ignoring her brothers. 

In one way or another, he really has screwed each and every one of them over individually, hasn’t he? 

“I know.” Vanya’s hand falls onto his forearm and she gives it an affirming squeeze, the action tearing his attention away from his siblings and back to her. She stares at him with soft eyes and a sad smile.

Five’s chest aches. 

“I know you didn’t, Five,” Vanya says, her voice gentle and her hand remaining firmly on his arm. “I never blamed you for any of it… for any of this.” She takes in a deep breath and when she lets it go it wavers. “Things are going to be… kind of shitty for a while, but I’ll - _we’ll_ \- all get through it. We’ll all be okay because we all have each other, right?” The corners of her lips pull up further and her expression feels less somber. “I’m just happy to have us all together… and to have you back home again.” 

_Home_. Five’s eyelids flutter and his breath catches. Her voice is nothing but earnest, her touch only reassuring, and he finds it hard to look at her, his green eyes flitting anywhere besides her face. He doesn’t deserve any of this. He doesn’t deserve her forgiveness, not after he let his ego get the best of him. Not after he left them all in a naïve attempt to prove a stupid point to their father. Yet here she is, offering it willingly to him, placating _him_ , and it all feels too much. It’s suddenly hard to breathe and the instinctive urge to blink away from this moment is very strong. 

Emotions are difficult. Fighting and surviving - that’s the easy stuff of life. Five is confident in his abilities to keep himself alive and handle his own. But handling other people… handling _this_ \- it’s absolutely unbearable. He loathes being responsible for other people’s feelings, especially when the people in question are one of the few he actually cares about. He feels exposed, vulnerable, defensive. Snide remarks are the only thing he feels prepared to offer her and he has to swallow them down before he says something he will regret. The alcohol makes every emotion swell through him tenfold and he curses his decision to have gone with whiskey as a celebratory drink. Vanya must see the panic evident on his face because her mouth falls open to speak.

Only to be cut off by the abrupt blaring of ABBA’s _Dancing Queen_. 

“Oh Allison, you’re the _best!_ ” Klaus gushes, spinning about to throw his arms around her. She has a grin on her face and an empty record sleeve in hand. Laughter bubbles from her when Klaus pulls her towards the open space of the floor, wriggling them back and forth to the music. 

Luther lets out a resigned, “Fine,” and Diego, even if it isn’t his pick in music, seems content with the fact that in a way he still has won this round. He starts bobbing his head to the beat and then he’s side stepping to the newly designated dance space to join the other two.

Five is grateful for the distraction. He watches the scene unfold before him with a mixture of perplexed fascination. Luther abandons his begrudging pout when Allison beckons him over to the dance floor, unable to resist his sister’s charm. It’s a gradual transition, but eventually he’s right there in the middle, punching his arms into the air and jutting his hips side to side. Diego’s moves are precise and skilled, surprisingly, and Klaus and Allison are dancing loosely together and laughing. Even when Luther accidentally bumps into Klaus, causing him to spill his drink down his front, no one stops to get up in arms. The four of them look utterly ridiculous, but they’re also so… happy. So _free_. The realization hits Five that he hasn’t seen them truly let loose like this since they were kids and they would gather in Luther’s room with a Griddy’s haul at two in the morning. Luther would turn on his record player and they would stay up gorging themselves on sugar until they either all passed out or Pogo would come shoo them all back to their respective rooms. 

“Five, Vanya, come on!” Allison calls. “You guys are a part of this family too. That means joining in when celebrating.” 

This draws a scoff from Five. “I’m celebrating just fine over here,” he says, lifting his drink to make a point and then downing the remnants of it. 

Klaus speaks up. “Come on old timer, get over here. Drag him over Vanya, or we’ll send Luther over there to do it.”

“Hey, I didn’t agree to-!”

“Yeah, and if Luther can’t make it happen we’ll just have Allison rumor him over.”

“Diego!”

“They have a point, you know,” Vanya says from beside him. She places her glass on the bar behind them and stands.

“Vanya, I’m not dancing.”

“Come on, just one song,” she says, giving him an imploring look. Five ignores it, instead turning around to find the bottle of Macallan to fix himself a third (fourth?) drink.

“Hard pass, but thanks.”

“Please?”

_Shit_. Vanya is pulling out the big guns. Five keeps his gaze averted and mouth shut, focusing on the brown liquor splashing into his tumbler. He knows if he meets her eyes, his resolution will falter. He has always been weak when it comes to his shyer sisters requests, something he is cursing himself for right now. 

Clearly, Vanya hasn’t forgotten this fact either. 

Five straightens himself once more, watching the others who seem to have forgotten about hauling him over for the moment. He pointedly ignores Vanya’s eyes burning a hole into his head and steels himself with another swig of whiskey. It goes down easier and easier with each sip, a clear indicator that he’s really feeling its effects now.

From the corner of his eye he sees her face waver. She takes her glass from the bar, drains its contents, and slides it back across the wood. With a clear of her throat she grabs his wrist and pulls. Five unsteadily throws his alcohol occupied hand out to balance himself and some of it splashes out over the rim and onto his hand. He shoots a glare at her. 

“I said _no_.”

“Just for a minute.”

“I’d rather shoot myself in the leg.”

“One song.”

“Vanya-.”

“For me, Five? Please?” 

Oh.

Well _shit_. 

And just like that he’s out of his seat (mostly due to her pulling, _not_ because he got out of it on his own volition) and asserting, “Fine, but I’m only going to stand there and watch you all embarrass yourselves.” It annoys him how much the grin that blossoms across her face makes his chest warm and he blames it on the alcohol. He thinks he can blame a lot on the alcohol right now. His steps towards his siblings are a touch… well, sloppy. 

Perhaps he’s a bit less buzzed and a bit more drunk.

“Oh look, grandpa joined!” Klaus exclaims, wiggling his body over towards them. Five makes a face and shoves his empty hand into his short’s pocket. “Come on Five, even you can’t resist the allure of Sweden's greatest pop group.” 

“Can't say I hate to disappoint you, Klaus.”

Vanya relinquishes his wrist and starts jiving in a way that is so uniquely _Vanya_. The other siblings dance by and some try their best to get him to join (Diego tries the whole ‘fishing’ move and Five resolutely declines to act as his catch, occupying himself with his beverage and flashing a rather impolite gesture Diego’s way instead).

By the time _Waterloo_ comes on his brothers and sisters have abandoned all efforts in getting him to join in. Five watches them, reflecting distantly how each siblings’ moves seem quite befitting of them. And as ridiculous as they all look, he admits to himself that they… they really are enjoying themselves. They’re enjoying each other. 

Their father would be beside himself to see this. With that, there’s a crack in his resolution. 

It happens without him being aware of it. It starts with a slight tap of his toe. _Just_ his toe. It’s not dancing, just tapping, and he can’t help the human impulse to move in some way to a standard and over used pop beat. That’s how music like this is written - to hack the simplistic monkey side of their brains that says ‘must move to catchy beat’. 

But somehow both his feet end up tapping and moving the slightest bit to the rhythm and then his knees join in, which in turn leads his hips swaying. He nurses his drink while he moves, unaware of the way his head eventually starts bobbing along until he catches Vanya beaming at him. She’s smart enough to divert her attention quickly, knowing all too well that he’ll blink away out of spite if she makes a big deal about his participation. 

And to the rest of his familys’ credit, they do the same. They leave him be until yes, the allure of Sweden's greatest pop group does drag Five down into the pits of trashy music hell. His dance is… well, less of a dance and more a shuffle. But he allows himself to let go for just the moment, his eyes falling shut and body moving without much thought behind what he’s doing. He’s still aware of his family around him, their eyes periodically falling on him, their grins stretching from ear to ear with his participation. And it feels… 

It feels _nice_.

He has his family. He has his home. It’s April 2nd, 2019, and there is no longer an impending apocalypse he has to rush about to try to prevent. No world set aflame and encompassed by solitude that he has to try to survive in. He still holds fast to his concerns regarding the timeline and the Commission, though for just the moment he thinks he can forget about those things. He’s back where he belongs, back with the people he is meant to be surrounded by. Without a world to have to save, Five can simply… live again. He still has to figure out what exactly that means, but for now the specifics don’t matter. And the revelation brings a small, genuine smile to his face.

He might not have been looking for happy, but there’s a good chance he has found it anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> 2/13/2021 Update: My amazing friend [MyDarlingClementine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyDarlingClementine/pseuds/MyDarlingClementine) commissioned fanart based off this fic which you can find [here](https://circumstellars.tumblr.com/post/643042392189157376/five-dance-waterloo-commissioned-by)! Please go shed some love on the artist who is an absolutely amazing person.


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